Open a Trade Account

What an account is, and what it is not

It is not a membership, and it does not unlock a document listing figures — no such document exists, because nothing on this site carries a price and every number we issue is written against a named enquiry. What an account does is get identity and eligibility out of the way permanently, so that the next message you send is answered with stock and dates rather than with questions about your business.

You are not obliged to register before asking. An unregistered enquiry is answered on the same basis, and on listed brands our aim is a reply inside one business day. Registration starts paying when purchasing repeats — a second shipment, a growing range, a monthly programme — because by then the groundwork has been done once instead of every time.

Registering obliges you to nothing either. It creates a profile and a contact on the trade desk, which is open Monday to Friday, 09:00–18:00 CET. A binding order comes into existence at one moment only: when a pro-forma invoice has been issued and you have accepted it in writing.

Six things that let us answer with a number

Where we cannot price a registration straight away, the gap is almost always one of these.

Who the buyer is, legally

Registered company name, country, VAT or tax number, and the EORI or import registration you clear under where you already hold one. This is the part that establishes a trade buyer rather than a shopper, and it is what our own compliance checks run against.

The exact variant

Give us the format alongside the brand. Most brand families run across several pack sizes, and the size drives the case, the pallet build and therefore the freight — a slim can and a large PET bottle are separate propositions even when the label is identical. Tell us where you can flex between formats, because flexibility is frequently what makes an allocation possible at all.

How you buy

By case, by pallet, by mixed pallet or by the container. An approximate answer works, and so does a sentence like “a container to begin with, then monthly”. Case contents, layer patterns, pallet build and gross weights are pinned down on the pro-forma against the lot actually offered, because those figures shift with format and pallet height and any generic table would mislead you.

Where it is going, and on what term

The destination moves an offer at least as much as the volume does: it decides routing, sensible delivery terms, duty treatment on arrival and which documents have to travel. Collecting under EXW at Madrid — a collection booked in advance with the logistics desk, which issues the loading address and a reference — and taking DAP to your own inland warehouse are two completely different transactions over the same cases. How goods leave us explains what each term shifts.

Anything your market demands of the pack

Label languages, an importer address on pack, particular ingredient or allergen formatting, registrations you hold or still need. Raised at registration, these are checked against available stock before an offer goes out. Raised after booking, they become somebody's delay. Artwork that does not suit the destination is the most avoidable cause of a stalled first shipment, and the market corridors set out what changes where.

How often

Say whether this is a single purchase or the beginning of a programme. The two are supplied differently, and predictable offtake means allocation can be planned around your account instead of chased for it.

Eligibility, stated plainly

Everything here is sold for resale or professional use, and applications are screened on that basis alone.

Accounts we open. Importers and trading houses buying to distribute onward; distributors assembling mixed containers; wholesalers and cash-and-carry operators restocking fast lines; supermarket, convenience and forecourt groups purchasing centrally; pharmacy and parapharmacy wholesalers taking dermo-cosmetic ranges; catering, hospitality and food-service suppliers; duty-free, marine and border-trade operators holding the necessary permissions; and re-exporters and free-zone operators.

Applications we decline.

• Consumers. Nothing sits behind this account for private buyers, there is no quantity small enough to make it work, and a household enquiry cannot be served here at all.
• Buyers whose destination demands packaging we do not have. Declining is cheaper for both of us than shipping goods that will be stopped at a border.
• Anyone needing us described as an official, appointed or exclusive distributor. We are none of those things. We sell genuine brand-owner stock in the manufacturer's sealed packaging and we describe ourselves in exactly those words — in correspondence, in tenders and in our published position on authenticity. The wording does not bend for a contract.
• Ranges outside what we can source through our established trade channels.

Businesses that fall between those descriptions — a marketplace seller, a tender buyer, an online retailer running its own warehouse — should apply and describe how they operate. A person reads those, and a form would only guess.

The route a first order takes

1. Registration and checks. We verify the business details supplied and come back on anything missing.
2. Enquiry. Lines with variants and quantities, destination, delivery term, plus any regulatory requirement you already know about.
3. Allocation. We establish what can genuinely be committed against that specification. Availability quoted at enquiry is an indication; it is not a reservation and it is not held while a decision is pending.
4. Pro-forma invoice. This is the controlling document. It records the goods, batch codes and best-before dates, pack and pallet construction, the Incoterm with its named place, payment terms and the documents that will accompany the consignment. If a purchase order says something different, the pro-forma prevails.
5. Settlement. Stock is committed once the pro-forma has been accepted and, where prepayment applies, funds have cleared.
6. Loading and release. The consignment is built and sealed at our Madrid consolidation facility, then released with the commercial invoice, packing list, export declaration and transport document, plus the origin evidence and destination certificates the corridor calls for.

On money, the position is published rather than negotiated in correspondence. The standard basis is prepayment in cleared funds against the pro-forma before goods are allocated for loading; an irrevocable documentary credit at sight is available where the transaction suits one. Open credit is not offered against a first order. It is considered only once buyer registration is complete and references have been taken, which is a practical argument for registering before you need it rather than at the moment you do. Accepted methods, bank charges and the rest sit on the Incoterms and payment terms page, with the contractual detail in our terms of sale.

Asked at registration, answered here

Must I have an account before requesting a quotation?

No — send the enquiry. What an account changes is where the next one starts: at allocation, rather than at verification.

What is the minimum order?

No single figure exists, and a supplier quoting one before seeing your lines is inventing it. It moves with the brand, the format and the destination. Smaller buyers are typically served from a mixed pallet and larger ones by full containers, and the quantity applying to your specific lines is put in writing on the pro-forma.

I have never imported from the EU. Is that a problem?

No, and it is worth telling us on the form. First-time importers are ordinary customers here. We will propose a delivery term that leaves the freight and customs work where you can actually carry it, and we will tell your clearing agent which documents to expect from Spain.

Will you send a price list?

No, and not merely as policy. A meaningful figure depends on variant, quantity, destination, term and what can be allocated that week, so any fixed list would be wrong before it was read.

Something arrives short or damaged — then what?

A written procedure with time limits applies, set out under returns and claims. Anything else — documents, dating, routing, a market requirement you are unsure about — belongs in the enquiry itself. The export desk would far rather deal with it before the pro-forma than after the seal goes on.